Battle of Negropont

The Battle of Negropont was fought in July 1470 between the fleets of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, led by Sultan Mehmed II (Fatih Sultan Mehmet)were besieging Negropont, when the Venetians arrived to relieve them. However, the Venetians were unable to break the Turkish siege. The leader of the Venetian relief force was Nicolò Canale, known as "a man of letters rather than a fighter, a learned man readier to read books than direct the affairs of the sea."^[1] His fleet had 53 galleys and 18 smaller ships, a fifth of the Ottoman fleet's size. He arrived three weeks into the siege, lost his nerve and withdrew to Samothrace, asking for more help, only Papal indulgences arrived. Canale could have broken the siege if he had attacked the Pontoon bridge the Turks depended on. Wind and tide was in his favour and they were sailing 15 knots towards it, but he lost his nerve and withdrew. He took his now mutinous fleet back to Venice and Negropont surrendered the next day. The garrison commander, Paolo Erizzo surrendered so long as he could keep his head, the Ottomans cut him in half at the waist instead. Canale was tried, fined, stripped of his rank and exiled to Porto Guaro.

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